Method and system for providing a transaction platform for pre-owned merchandise

Abstract

One embodiment of the present invention provides a system for facilitating trading of pre-owned merchandise. During operation, the system receives, at a server, recycle information associated with an item that a first user intends to purchase and stores the recycle information and identification information of the first user in a database. The recycle information specifies identification and price information associated with the item. The system receives, from a second user, a request for an offer price for a for-sale item. The system then queries the database to identify one or more users who intend to purchase the for-sale item, calculates offer prices provided by the identified users for the for-sale item, and provides a list of the identified users and the calculated offer prices to the second user.

Description

RELATED APPLICATION[0001]Under 35 U.S.C. 119, this application claims the benefit and right of priority of Chinese Patent Application No. 201410324408.4, filed 8 Jul. 2014.BACKGROUND[0002]1. Field[0003]The present application relates to a method and a system for providing a transaction platform that facilitates trading of pre-owned merchandise.[0004]2. Related Art[0005]With the rapid development of the manufacturing technology, costs of mobile devices, such as cell phones, smartphones, tablet computers, etc., have decreased continuously, thus leading to the prevalence of mobile devices among populations. In recent years, global sales of the mobile devices account for hundreds of millions. In the meantime, the continuous innovation on mobile device technologies prompts many users to own multiple devices of the same type at the same time. For example, a user may purchase an iPhone® (registered trademark of Apple Inc. of Cupertino, Calif.) of the latest version while still owning one o...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The present invention provides a system for trading pre-owned merchandise. This system receives recycle information about an item and stores it in a database, along with the identification information of the first user. When a second user requests an offer price for a for-sale item, the system queries the database to identify users who intend to purchase the item and calculates the offer price for it. The system then provides a list of the identified users and their calculated offer prices to the second user. The system can also assemble a set of attributes based on noticeable attributes specified by the identified users and provide a set of option groups to the second user, where each option group corresponds to a possible value of a noticeable attribute. This facilitates the second user to specify a value for the noticeable attribute of the for-sale item. Overall, this system simplifies the process of trading pre-owned merchandise by automating the recycling and negotiating processes.

Problems solved by technology

In addition, some non-operational devices may urgently need proper disposal.

Improper handling of these pre-owned devices may result in resource waste and sometimes severe environmental damages.

However, such a process has been proved to be too subjective, with the device owner often suspicious of the price offered by the buyer.

The lacking of a scientific and rational pricing mechanism for pre-owned devices can lead to mistrust between the sellers and the buyers.

Specifically, during a transaction between the recycler and the owner of a pre-owned device, bargaining is often performed based on past experiences or subjective judgments, and malicious attempts to suppress the resale price of the device can occur, resulting in the lack of trust by many device owners toward the recycling services.

Correspondingly, the recyclers also face some obstacles when providing the recycling services, such as attracting sellers or obtaining truthful device information from the sellers.

However, in these conventional approaches, a seller is often unable to accurately price his own pre-owned device based on the current market value, and hence, often fails to present an appropriate asking price when placing the ad.

In addition, in such scenarios, an agreement between the seller and the purchaser is often hard to reach.

As a result, the pre-owned device is unlikely to be resold or transferred.

Considering that certain network resources have been used for publishing the device information, when the transaction eventually fails after negotiation, the published information becomes useless and the used network resources are waste.

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